← The Bobby Bones Show
The Bobby Bones Show
BOBBYCAST: Dolly Parton on Writing "Jolene" and I Will Always Love You" on the Same Day + The Making of Her 'Rockstar' Album
00:56:06
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- [00:00]
Bobby Bones
This is an I heart podcast.
- [00:05]
Dolly Parton
Nourishes like a smoothie and sizzles like a smash burger. Easy to pick up and hard to put down. Made from plants and grills like beef. See, it's not. Or it's. And. And that's what I love about impossible. Just this weekend, a couple impossible burgers. Put them on the grill. Boom. Felt like I was having a cheat meal without the feeling of the guilt of a cheat meal. It's not just burgers. They got hot dogs, chicken. Everything you need for your summer menu. Look for the impossible red packaging at your local grocery store today.
- [00:35]
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- [01:04]
Podcast Host
Audio what happens when we come face to face with death?
- [01:08]
Dolly Parton
My truck was blown up by a 20 pound anti tank mine.
- [01:10]
My parachute did not deploy.
- [01:12]
I was kidnapped by a drug cartel.
- [01:15]
Podcast Host
When we step beyond the edge of what we know, I clinically died.
- [01:19]
Dolly Parton
The heart stopped beating, which I was dead for 11.5 minutes.
- [01:22]
Podcast Host
In return, it's a miracle I was.
- [01:24]
Dolly Parton
Brought back Alive again.
- [01:25]
Podcast Host
A podcast about the strength of the human spirit. Listen to Alive again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
- [01:36]
Dolly Parton
Ladies and gentlemen, we are experiencing technical difficulties. This is the Bobby cast. Welcome to episode 523. She's a living legend. She's a country queen. She's a philanthropist. She is a rock star. I mean, she's in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame because she said no to it. Didn't she end up saying yes to it? Yeah, but she wanted to do a rock album in order to get in. She's like, I feel like I need to do a rock album to get into it. So is she in then now? Yeah. Okay. Because I know she said, no, don't vote for me. And then she said, okay, I'll do that rock album and then I'll go in. But I don't know if she was put in then. Yeah, I'm pretty because I never got to vote for her and I'm a voting member. Let's see. Unless it was before. So I sat down with her and I sat down with her. This has been a bit. Because she agreed to be in my comedy special which aired on cmt and it was really cool that she agreed to do it. And she voiced the opening of it, she voiced the closing of it. We did some interview segments in the middle that was kind of about what I was talking about in my comedy special. And so I went and sat with her and I just haven't put it out because I had used it for that and I didn't kind of want to get it mixed up. And she was so kind to do it. But I had this, you know, basically half hour with her that I thought was really cool. What do you have? She was inducted in 2022, the year before I started voting, before my votes really were instrumental in who made the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. So you weren't with us when we recorded this. I was there for this one. Yeah, you came. Yeah. Scoop, Steve. Oh, good. In her big warehouse. Awesome. Makes me feel better then because I don't remember really. I remember going and doing it, but my mind was on. I got to get to certain places because I know I want to use it in special. So I don't even know. We really talked about that whole thing is fascinating. Just going in there and seeing like how much they do out of that location and like. Oh, you mean her facility. Yeah, she's like a well old machine. Yeah, it's a facility with. It's weird to say multiple rooms, but this building is so big. It's like multiple areas that feel like different warehouses that they do different. If it's like Home Shopping Network, if it's like shooting a TV show, if it's what we did, we set up for a full interview with a full set. Yeah, it's like I've never been on a movie studio a lot, but that's what it felt like. It did kind of feel like that. So I did this. It was Dolly and I, a one on one. We talked about. And you'll hear the roots, the artist who inspired her, the. The drive that she still has, which is crazy. She's done it all, yet she still has the drive. She gives me marriage advice. Her and her husband were married for 59 years. Sadly, Carl die and her husband passed away back in March. So always thinking about Dolly and her family. But that was recorded a while ago, way before that happened. So if we're talking about it and you're like, man, Bobby's kind of not even addressing that he died this is way before that. Dolly's a busy lady. She got a new book that came out called Star of the Show, My Life on Stage. But that doesn't come out to November, right? Yeah. This year. Yeah. Okay. The Country Music hall of Fame and Museum will debut Dolly Parton Journey of a Seeker. And that is already out because I saw her doing the press conference for it. That is out. She also partnered with Good American to launch Jolene's for sure a gene, right? Jolene's. Jolene's. That's the greatest name. I bet she's written so many songs. You could probably do so many products just off the twist of the song names. Dollywood's 40th anniversary, which by the way, I saw was just voted the number one theme park again in America. Oh, yeah. I've never been. Have you ever? No, I've never been. My wife has asked to go like three times. It's not like I get to say yes or no, but we've made like we'll both suggest some somewhere to go for vacation. And that's been on her list three times in a row. We have not done it. Honestly, it was seeing it name number one that made me want to go for the first time. Like, man, we should really be good. Man. We are really influenced hard by headline. So this is my conversation with the one and the only Dolly Parton. Dolly, I love you. I want to lead with that.
- [05:44]
Ok.
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I just want to set that there.
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So I love you back. Would that be fair to say?
- [05:48]
Yeah. Especially now. I think we've been there.
- [05:51]
We all love you.
- [05:53]
So a question. I want to set it up first. I have a story that I do on my act where I talk about people that show up whenever you really can't. They're there to offer you something, but nothing in return. And I talk about Lionel Richie and how I was freaking out one day because Ryan Seacrest, he got sick and had to miss Idol. So I had to go host it with like four minutes before the show starts. He's never missed an episode. And here I am. And it's not that I can't host a show, but the stage direction is such a big part about it. And I talk about how Lionel gets up, walks all the way across the arena. He's got to get back to his seat, too, and just gives me this real, hey, man, hands on the shoulders. You can do this. The Commodores did this. He didn't have to do that. Like, Lionel Richie's as famous, as nice, as cool as could Be didn't have to do that. And so I talk about how amazing it is when people will give to you when they want nothing in return. And so when I say a story like that to you, who comes to mind that did not have to be there for you, but was there?
- [06:48]
Well, so many people? I actually have more than one. In my early days, my Uncle Bill, who's the one that took me around because he saw my great potential and he would take me around to shows and things, and even when my daddy didn't even want me to go, you know, getting out in the world. Like my Uncle Bill used to bring me down to Nashville in the early days. So he was definitely one of the people that didn't have to do it. He just saw that that was my dream and my desire. But there are many people like in the business. Many pearls. When I first came to Nashville, she called me over one day and she said, dolly, you're a right pretty girl. And you seem like you've got, you know, a lot of talent because I've heard some of your songs. She said, but don't let anybody ever tell you that you need to be this away or you need to be that away. You just be you. And she said, and don't let none of these old hairy legged boys try to make you believe that you're not as good as they are, because you can be whatever you want to be. And she didn't have to do that, but she saw that I was about to to do my number and she did not want me to get caught up. Like some of the girls would just kind of do whatever they needed to do to get a break, but she saw something else in me. But she just said, don't do it. You just be you and believe in your talent and believe in yourself.
- [08:11]
Why do you think she did that?
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Because she's a good person. Like you said, people that are good tend to do good things. And I think that was probably Lionel's good heart that saw that. He'd been in that spot before and she probably had in her and in her own way been in that spot.
- [08:32]
We went to Italy, my wife and I, and I'm from a rural town in Arkansas. I never went out of the country until I started to have some success. So now that we're a little older, get to do some cool stuff and we go. And they would have Italian music on in these places, but I ate so early because my schedule's pretty early. And they would turn on American music everywhere we went in Three of the four places they turned on your music when we walked in. They assume every American, and it's probably right, loves Dolly Parton.
- [08:59]
Well, I'm sure every American don't. Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of people, like, slap me upside the head, but I don't want to hear about them. It's a great compliment, but see, I've been at this a long time, and I've been famous in Europe for years and years and years because of the songs that I used to sing and write, like Coat of Many Colors. And people related to that. They knew that I was brought up in a family of 12 children. I was kind of a mountain Cinderella's story. And people related to my music, and so therefore they related to me. And then when I got to being on TV and stuff, people felt like they, you know, like they knew me. So it wasn't uncommon. A lot of my music was playing more overseas than it did here for a long time, you know, from my early records. But it's nice to be loved by anybody, anywhere.
- [09:50]
I was eating pasta. Your music, though, that's what. Everywhere. Most places we went, it was you playing over the top or eating our pasta in Italy.
- [09:56]
Oh, well, did that make you happy or was you trying to get out of the country?
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No, it made me feel like I was at home, which is great. My set on my show, I have a couch and a couple lamps and really, that's it. Because when I grew up in this. We grew up in a 900 square foot house in Arkansas. I never had a bedroom my whole life. I slept on the couch. And so my closet was underneath my couch. And it was. Literally everything was on the couch. Never had a bedroom. And so that was what it was like, though, for me growing up in a small house with a lot of people around. Your story similar. Ish. You're from a small town in Tennessee. What was home like for you growing up?
- [10:32]
Well, home was like full. There was a lot of kids. We had. Mama had one kid on her and one kid in her, as long as I can remember. One on her hip and one a growing in. But we lived in the house, you know, where we. And we didn't have running water unless we'd run and get it. And, you know, we just kind of washed in a wash pan. And people say, how in the world did you take a bath? That many people in the house? Because there were six boys and six girls in my family ultimately. I mean, after we were all there and after mom had had Them all. But people say, how did you take a bath? How'd you have any privacy? I said, well, we had a little screen, you know, a little sheet. Mom would tie on a string over there. And then we'd wash up as far as possible. And then we'd wash down as far as possible. And when the boys cleared the room, we washed. Possible.
- [11:26]
Yes. Yes, I do.
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Well, it basically is like that because it was about your privacy. Because you knew when you could, you know, you had. The girls had to do their thing, the boys had to do their things. And mom would make sure that we cared about such things as privacy and decency and all that. But when you were growing up, it's just natural growing up like we did, you learn the rules and you go by them.
- [11:53]
When you have all those brothers and sisters, you have to somehow get attention for yourself. I mean, you're born into an environment of everybody even indirectly seeking attention. You got a couple parents, 12 kids. I mean, is that where this performance gene came from?
- [12:10]
Yeah. Well, my mother's people were all very musical. So music was always a part of our family. My grandpa was a preacher. He also played piano and played guitar. So my people were the ones that sang at funerals and weddings and shindigs and anything around locally. Some of my relatives, somebody was always playing. But when I was young, my Uncle Bill and my Uncle Louis were both. You know, they paid attention to me. My Uncle Lewis gave me my first little baby Martin guitar. Cause he saw how serious I was when everybody would come bring their instruments. We'd sit on the porch and sing. Well, I learned to play that little guitar. And that's when my Uncle Bill saw the great potential.
- [12:51]
Bobby Bones
But I.
- [12:52]
Dolly Parton
When I was like. I learned to play when I was, like, seven. So I started writing some serious songs. And then Mama was fascinated with how I could rhyme and write songs about stuff I'd never lived. But I'd hear them talk about people in the war, somebody sick, somebody this. Just those old world songs they used to sing. So I would write all these songs, and when people would come to the house, mom would say, ronnie, get your guitar. I want you to hear what this little thing has wrote. You know? And so I would get my guitar and I would sing those songs. And so I saw right away that I was getting more attention because I was. I have a sister and two brothers older, so I was fourth one down. And then there's eight younger. So I didn't get a lot of attention, but I saw I could get it, and I was One of those kids that needed a lot of attention. And I knew mom and Daddy loved us all the same, but we didn't get picked up unless we was getting our butt busted or, you know, or sick or something. So that guitar and my music was my first entrance into getting the attention that I needed. And I'm still at it.
- [13:55]
Yeah. I was gonna ask. You still crave it, do you?
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I do. I think that's. But I crave it now because it fulfills what I feel is my true gift. You know, I love to write songs, and I've written tons and tons of songs through the years, but it's. I don't know that it's. Well, I guess it is about attention. I just love doing it. And I just want. I want people to see that I can do it. I want them to appreciate what I am doing. That I have written these songs that I hope are good. I think are good, but that's for somebody else to judge. But then when they do judge me, you know, and I get the accolades from all that, then I feel like I've done something great. And so. And I do crave that. So I guess attention is the best word for it. Don't you guess?
- [14:45]
Yeah, I think I just was seeking love. Like, I think that was it for me. Where I would go, okay, well, I didn't get a lot of love growing up because I didn't have parents, really. And so I would go and perform or be funny, and people would go, I like that. I would be like, wow, I'm liked. And so it didn't start working with me with girls until probably my 20s. Yeah. And then I just got married a couple years ago. I've been married two years, so.
- [15:08]
Congratulations.
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Thank you. Never been married two years in. So what's. But it's difficult. Cause I already kind of had my ways wired. I was 40 when I got married.
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Well, yeah. Does she have her ways wired?
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Yeah. I mean, I feel like I'm way more wired. Wired, though.
- [15:21]
Oh, are you?
- [15:21]
Yeah. I'm almost 12 years older than her, so it's not a crazy difference, but it's enough of a difference to where. Like, she's still got some landing room to where I'm. I am who I am. I'm trying to not be that way, but. What?
- [15:34]
No, don't you not be. Let her change. Don't you change.
- [15:37]
I've never heard anyone advise.
- [15:39]
Don't change.
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I've never heard anyone advise that. Okay, well, what else?
- [15:42]
Well, you can't change.
- [15:43]
This is the greatest segment. Give me more advice like that.
- [15:45]
You know what? Been with my husband for 59 years. He knew who I was when he met me and I knew who he was. But we kind of. I was only 18 when we met and he was 21. So we kind of grew up together. You know, we kind of learned each other as we went. But I saw who he was early on. He saw who I was and he saw right away that I wasn't going to change much. But I was able to adapt. I think that word is better about adapting than it is change. You got adapt to certain things because you can't just have it all your way.
- [16:23]
I'm gonna take her to that clip though, of you saying she needs to change this and cut the rest of it out.
- [16:27]
Except that, well, I don't think you need to. I don't know what it's like at home. I ain't her, but I'd like to be.
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But don't change a similarity that I think your husband not known for being a super public guy. My wife does not like to be in the spotlight.
- [16:45]
Oh, my husband hates it. He don't. He never was.
- [16:48]
So how do you. What was that balance? Because we struggle with that now because I again, I need it to be successful. She does not want it at all. How did you guys do that?
- [16:59]
Well, my husband was a homebody and he's very quiet and he didn't want to do anything but be at home. He's a homebody. He's a cancer. You know, if you go by the signs, I'm Capricorn, he's cancer. Those are compatible signs, if you put any faith in that. But if you don't. And I. I don't to that degree. But he loved being who he was and loved being left alone to do it. And I love being who I wasn't, being left alone to do it. And so we just found ways, things that we did like together and things that we enjoyed doing that was us. So maybe you be you and let her be her. And then you gotta find some new things so you can be us. You can be, you know, who you are. Cause that's the key of just trying to find that. You can't just. You can't just make somebody be what you want them to be. They are who they are.
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I'm trying to make her be what I want to be. But she's also very strong herself.
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That's what I'm saying. You can't make anybody change. You've just got to make them want to do some things different or be willing to. And if not, it won't last. And you can come live with me and my husband. Well, you are.
- [18:13]
I will. I'll use this in court when I show up at your house and you guys try to kick me out, so.
- [18:19]
But it's not easy. We've been together all these years. But like I say, somebody says, how do you. You know, how do you. What do you attribute your long marriage to? I said, well, I stay gone. So maybe that's your answer.
- [18:31]
Do you guys have. Just an example about my wife and I. I usually don't work three weekends in a row, meaning I'll work all week doing the radio show or shooting tv and I'll tour. But I really try hard not to do three in a row to for sure carve out that weekend. Like, we try to set these little benchmarks and pillars. Did you guys have any of that in your relationship early on? So you didn't get lost? Because my time management skills are not great to do personal and private.
- [18:54]
Well, I hadn't become a star when I met my husband. I just came here to be one, and he knew that, and so he went with it. But did she not know that about you?
- [19:02]
She did. I think, though, when we. We dated pre Covid for six, eight months or so. Long distance. Then Covid and Covid. I'm home all the time.
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Well, that's when you get to know somebody.
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We got to know each other. Yep.
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You don't know somebody until you have to live with them.
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Till you gotta poop real close to em. You know what I mean?
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Well, that's when you know who you really are.
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And that's how I knew I loved her. But then once work opened up, I'm gone again, and it's like I'm. And so I kind of tricked. I kind of hit her with the rope. A doper. I tricked her. I was like, look how home I am. And then I'm gone all the time.
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Well, don't you blame her faults on Covid. So both of you have to take the blame.
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Oh, it's all me. I've also learned that.
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So she said, right?
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Yes, I've learned it's all me.
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It's not all you.
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I take it I have to apologize for what she does for what I do in her dreams. That's a thing now. Like, if she has a bad dream and I do something bad in her dream, then I have.
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I better tick a lunk or I will say too much.
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Well, you talk about fame like, what is it?
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Fame.
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Hmm.
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Well, I guess the word fame is after you. I think that word must have been invented after people were already stars. Had to be. Because I think fame and success are not necessarily the same words. And successful and successful are not the same words. You can't. You can be a success, but not successful if you're not. If you don't know how to enjoy it, if you can't enjoy it, if you don't appreciate it, if it doesn't work for you and make you happy. Cause that is, you know, money as that whoever said it, money can make a man. But, you know, I mean, man can make money, but money cannot make a man. It's the same, you know, it's like you got to. But fame, I guess that just means you've made it and there you are, just like a star. But it's like that movie Rhinestone. There was a line in it that always laughed at a star is just a big ball of gas. And that's kind of what it is if you look at it like that. So it's what I guess what you tag it to. I feel like I'm famous, meaning everybody. I think fame means that everybody knows who you are. You know, you're famous because everybody knows your name and they'll see you on tv. But that still doesn't. Should not make you a different person.
- [21:20]
Or does it make you more of who you kind of really are? Since you have access and since you have resources, does fame, success make you more of who you originally are? And where do you think?
- [21:33]
I think so. I'd like to think so. In my case, it does. Cause I've never been a diva. I've never. You know, I'm thankful that I'm successful. I always wanted to have money. I wrote a song called Sacrifice, and it says I was going to be rich no matter how much it took. Say I was going to be rich no matter how much it costs. And I was going to win no matter how much I lost, you know. And that to me, those two lines, you know, it's like if you're willing to sacrifice. All through the years, I kept my eye on the prize, you know. And you ask if it's worth the sacrifice, but you don't, you know, it's like empty or full, you know, I've carried my pail, but you don't drink the water if you don't dig the well. You know, it's like all those things you. I think that I'm the same person I always was. I'm just more relaxed now, more comfortable. Cause I can afford to be. That's what you were saying. I can afford to be myself. Just like when I started cutting, I had to wait. I never could make money, big money singing bluegrass, and I love bluegrass. And so when I did my bluegrass album, I said I had to get rich in order to sing. Like I was poor, you know. And it's like you kind of, you know, you could look at things like that. But I guess everybody has their own a version of what they think fame and stardom is. I'm a celebrity. But all those words like celebrity, star, you know, and fame, they're just words to tag the people that hopefully that have become successful at what they're best at. And if you're. Like I said, if you're a true success, that means you should be able to enjoy it.
- [23:11]
Do you enjoy it?
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Yeah.
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When did you start being able to enjoy it?
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Well, when I quit being able to enjoy it, I'm going to quit altogether now. There are times I get stressed out because there's so much you have to do that you just get. You know, you're just burnt out. You're just beat. Then you think all kinds of things. Well, you know, maybe it's time, you know, maybe I should do this and do that. But I mean, you're up the next morning thinking about something you want to go do. You can't help it if that's who you are. You know, like, it's like my song. I wrote a song called Whatever your Are, be that. Whatever you do, do that. Because anything else is just an act. So whoever you are, be that. So if you're a comedian, be that. If you're a dj, be that. You know, whatever you are, that's true to you and that's how you express yourself. We don't have to make ourselves over or allow somebody else to make us over. We need to be who we are and find ways to make that work for us.
- [24:08]
I found that if I lie or fabricate a story, it's not that I'm too good for it. I just can't remember it all the time. So I try not to. So I don't. I just try to tell the truth and be as honest as I can not. Cause I'm too good to lie. Cause I would love to lie and remember it. Cause this is more entertaining, but I can't remember it. So stay honest with you. I feel like that's been a big part of who you are is just honesty at all costs. Was that always the idea with you?
- [24:33]
Well, I don't even know. I don't think about it like that. I always say all my lies are true. No, it's like. I think sometimes you have to make excuses that might turn like. A lot of people might say that that's a lie, but usually it's an excuse you have to make. You have to bend the truth some. Mostly to spare someone else's feelings.
- [24:57]
So white lines are for myself.
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Well, I'm not saying a lie is okay. I'm just saying sometimes when you say.
- [25:04]
I can come to your house, that's a lie.
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When I what?
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When you say I can come to your house and live with you and your husband, that's a.
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That's a lie.
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Right? That's my point. Yeah, See, that's what I'm saying here.
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But my good heart would allow you to if you needed to.
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Ok.
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If you needed to come. Of course, I was saying it to be funny, but my good heart would welcome you into my house. So I guess that's when you're successful, if you appreciate what you've got and be able to help somebody else with it.
- [25:34]
The album Rockstar and the book behind the Scenes, they are both so new. Meaning you put new songs on an album. You didn't have to do that. You could have just done these amazing songs with these amazing artists and do your version of it. Same thing with a book. It is a book of something you've never released before. Your fashion.
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Fashion.
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You have created fashion for so many people. So why keep on pushing as hard as you do?
- [26:05]
Oh, well, I'm not pushing. That's just. I want to leave things. Like we were talking earlier, before we even went on the air, about working so hard, because. But I feel like I gotta make hay while the sun shines. I'm 77 years old and I've done a lot in my time and I'm thankful for every bit of it. But there's stuff out there that I wanna have my hands on to be part of my legacy. I wanna be part of all these things that I know somebody's gonna cash in on when I'm dead. So why not make it right? Why not do it, and why not do it great? Well, certainly with the book, you know, I had a book called Songteller, and it was all about my songwriting, why I wrote songs, how I was feeling when I wrote the song, what inspired them, what period of, you know, in my life I was in. And so this one is the behind the Scenes, and it's about who can tell my story better than me. I know those feelings. I know those thoughts. I know the pain and the sorrow and the joy and the fun of all of it and the people and the jerks and the, you know, everything that has to do with my life. Nobody can guess that. You might guess at it, but you're not going to know. So I'm doing that because I want to get as much stuff out as I can with as much quality as I can, so it don't just get counterfeited when I'm dead and gone. And I've got. My next book is going to be.
- [27:22]
Called the Star of the Show.
- [27:24]
It's like a three, you know, song teller, behind the scenes, and the one I'm calling Star of the show, which is the name of one of my songs. And it's about my life on the road. The musicians, the travel, the hotels, the craziness and all the stuff. So I want to tell those stories. I don't want somebody else to tell them. But anyway, getting back to what you're saying, I'm the kind of person, I have to be busy, and I can tell you're the same way. I've got a lot of energy, and if I didn't use that to be creative, I'd just turn that in on myself, and that'd be dangerous. Or I'd turn it in on somebody else. That would be worse. So I think that if you're creative and you have these thoughts, you have to just keep on doing it. And, you know, it's like I can't even imagine just quitting. That's why I say I'll never retire. I might have to quit. If my husband got sick and I needed to be with him. And if I needed. If I was ill, you know, it would have to be a serious illness. You know, I'd have to. You know, I'd still be writing if my right arm worked. You know, if my arms worked, I could still write. But I just want to do everything I can because it won't always be this way. I won't always have opportunity. And God's been good to me and people have been good to me. And I get scared sometimes when everybody tries to put me on some sort of a pedestal. I think, God, don't put me up there. All you can do is just knock me off. You know, I'm not all that. You know, I talk about things like, I'm not an angel. I just play one on tv. And that's the truth. So I'm a lot of things, but what I try to be mostly is a good person and try to be creative and try to be good to others.
- [29:05]
Final three questions. I have a lot of people that will be watching this, and they're watching because they want to laugh and have a good time, but hopefully to be inspired to just, you know, commit to being better if it's a mom, if it's a dad or a better fireman or a bank, or work at a bank. And it's just committing to it. And a lot of people have. Have trouble just committing to it because of the fear of failure. And I have to imagine that someone that has all these successes as yourself has had a fair share of pretty big failures, too.
- [29:35]
Well, we all have failures, but you don't look at it like that if you're a smart person. Because even just like when I had my variety show years ago, it was entitled to be gonna be this or that, and I got a ton of money for it, which they had to pay me for anyway, even though it didn't last. But I was disappointed that it didn't work. But it didn't work for all the reasons. I knew it wasn't gonna work when we. I wasn't me. I couldn't be me. They were trying to revamp the old variety shows. And I'm, you know, I'm just a one kind of person. I'm just me. And if we can work off of me, I can make it successful. But if I try to go outside of my comfort zone, I never can make it work. But I learned so much about that show. Learn. You learn what you should not look at it like a failure, but as a stepping stone. I learned so much from that of what not to do, what not to allow to happen next time, that even in other shows I've done since then that I've produced or worked in, I've learned from that. So everything is something you can learn from. It's just a stepping stone. And so I'm even, you know, I really am almost glad that it didn't work because I didn't want to continue. I was under stress with it because I wasn't happy doing that. So as it was, I could have still been on the air if they'd have let me, you know, do more of who I am. But we all have those things in our lives, and we're all, you know, it takes a while to overcome it. You know, you're embarrassed by certain things. And all that. But if you're the right kind of talent and the right kind of person, you'll just take that as a good lesson. Which, by the way, I'm gonna do a comedy album one of these days. Since you're having a comedy show. That's gonna be one of my next things. People have always said you songs are.
- [31:31]
Super funny and witty. Like, even the ones you don't mean to be funny. What do you think's the most clever line, the most clever couplet, rhyming line that you have in your song off the top of your head?
- [31:41]
I just think that one I just said, you know, I was gonna be rich no matter how much it cost and I was gonna win no matter how much I lost or. One of my favorite lines in the songs I've written is a cup of ambition. You know, I get excited about those kind of things, but I don't know, I can't think right off the top of my head. But a lot of my songs are. Have a lot of comedy. But I wanna do a standup comedy album someday. Cause I like being funny.
- [32:13]
Me too. I just wish I was.
- [32:15]
Well, you are funny. I wanna say you are funny and you are good and you are capable of so many things. And you are so liked.
- [32:24]
I start crying. This is not even about me. Have you.
- [32:26]
I know. Let me just say this.
- [32:28]
Go ahead. I don't like compliments, tougher agents. But bj, let me just compliment you.
- [32:31]
Let me just say, a lot of these people that watch this, you know, they'll be all over the world, all over the country. But you, we think of you as like a local boy. And here in Nashville, I mean, you are just fantastic on the radio. Everybody loves the Bobby Bo Show. I mean, it's like we get up to do it, you know, Amy and all the people you have on the show, but. And then when you go out and do some of these shows like American Idol and just. You just have a spirit and an energy and a little, I don't know, you just got magic somehow. And I think you're good. And I think you ought to just be allowed to be good.
- [33:11]
I don't need any more questions after that. I think we'll end on that. And I'm not even going to air any other interview, just that last segment over and over.
- [33:17]
Well, we like you here. You're a local board of Os.
- [33:20]
Thank you very much. You are the best. Thank you. Thank you for the time and the inspiration to so many and for letting me fondle your Jewelry. Here. Children.
- [33:28]
Get off of me. You gotta come to my Carl's house. And he's gotta give you permission.
- [33:33]
You told me at the beginning I had permission. All right, thank you, guys. Back to you guys. There's nobody there. I'm just pointing.
- [33:39]
Sorry. Okay, awesome.
- [33:42]
Thank you, darling. Hang tight. The Bobbycast will be right back.
- [33:48]
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- [34:19]
Podcast Host
So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to.
- [34:23]
There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond and.
- [34:29]
Left a woman behind to drown.
- [34:32]
There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News. It's teddy escapes. Blonde Drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you the story really became about Ted's political future. Ted's political hopes. Will Ted become president?
- [34:46]
Kappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control.
- [34:51]
Dolly Parton
And he's not the only one Kennedy.
- [34:53]
Podcast Host
To survive a scandal.
- [34:54]
The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family.
- [35:04]
Dolly Parton
Listen to United States of Kennedy on.
- [35:06]
Podcast Host
The iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.
- [35:15]
Bobby Bones
Welcome to Pretty Private with ebony, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free.
- [35:22]
Dolly Parton
Free.
- [35:22]
Bobby Bones
I'm ebony, and every Tuesday, I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that would challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. On Pretty Private, we'll explore the untold experiences of women of color who faced it all. Childhood trauma, addiction, abuse, incarceration, grief, mental health struggles, and more. And found the strength to make it to the other side. My dad was shot and killed in his house. Yes, he was a drug dealer. Yes, he was a confidential informant. But he wasn't shot on street corner. He wasn't shot in the middle of a drug deal. He was shot in his house, unarmed. Pretty Private isn't just a podcast. It's your personal guide for turning storylines into Lifelines. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network.
- [36:14]
Dolly Parton
Network.
- [36:14]
Bobby Bones
Tune in on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
- [36:23]
Dolly Parton
And we're back on the Bobby cast. So as you can tell, Dolly's still on it. Super funny. So in this next part of the interview, we talk about her album Rockstar and how the album came together, because as we talked about earlier, she wasn't gonna accept being a member of the Rock and Roll hall of Fame until she did a rock album, which I guess. But Rock and Roll hall of Fame now is not really about, quote, unquote, rock music. Yeah, but to her, it was. Yep, it was. And I respected the fact that she wanted to do this, and there were people. I'll let her. I'll let her talk about it. So she shared a few stories and, you know, talked about the songs and how she asked certain artists to come and sing on the album. So here is that with Dolly Parton, the songs that you chose to do because there are just so many great songs in the world, period. But you chose some of my favorite songs of all time. Time. And I was talking to you about Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me. Like, why. Why did you pick these songs specifically for this album?
- [37:15]
Well, I picked song that I love, and I picked songs that my husband loved because he's the real rock and roller and he was a big inspiration for doing the album. But I picked this Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me because I love Elton John. I love his singing and I love his songs. And every time we get together, we. We're always singing together. And it sounded good. And so I thought, well, I'm doing this song on the album in hopes that he'll sing with me. So, of course, said he would. And so that this is a highlight on the album for me because I love how he sound. And that's just such a good song.
- [37:46]
The first time you guys sang together where. How. Like, that's just such a, you know, collision of awesomeness.
- [37:52]
You know what? We. The first time we ever did sing together, we were behind stage, actually. He did. I did a song, the song Imagine years ago. I was on one of my albums, and he sang it with me on the CMA Awards. He played the piano and I sang it. And so backstage, though, we were singing all these great old country songs.
- [38:14]
He knew them.
- [38:15]
He knew every country song in the world. Those great songs like Behind Closed Doors, he especially loved that make the World go away and all that. So we'd start singing and we just sounded so good together. And we said, you know what? We gotta do an album together someday. And we never got around to that. And we're both too old to start it now, probably. But I thought when I did this song, I'm gonna see if he'll sing it with me. And he just was so nice. I jumped right at the chance and I thought it turned out pretty good.
- [38:45]
With this album being a rock record. I mean, it's called Rock Star. I'm friends with the president of the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. And there was. We won Dolly. And then it was. Dolly says she's not. Not really deserving to be in the cause. She didn't do rock music. And then now, I mean, to me, the Rock and Roll hall of Fame is just. If you do awesome music like rock and roll is so just synonymous with great, great music. Doesn't matter the format. To me, how much of that was true to where you were. Like, I just don't think I deserve to be. And how much that.
- [39:13]
No, it was not made up. Because I. I hate controversy of any kind. I don't like to be in anything that said, oh, they did this and you know, in a bad way. But when they said they were going to put me in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame, I thought, why not Rock and Roll hall of Fame? Because I know so many people like Meatloaf and some of the greatest artists of all times that, you know, almost to the point, you know, almost as they get almost bitter about the fact that some of the greatest artists have never been in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. And I thought that you voted on that. And I thought, I am not taking votes away from people for them to put me in the hall of Fame. Just cause I was having a hot streak at the time with other things. And I didn't feel right about it. And so I said no, I didn't. I thought other people. Because I spent my life in country. Anything they give me in country, I'll take it. I will. You know, I think I would feel I deserve it because I've spent my life then. But anyway, when they explain what it was and that it's people's music that's. That's influenced other things. When I had a better understanding, I understand more why, but I just didn't feel right about it still. So I'm like my daddy. I don't want nothing that's, you know, that I don't earn. So when they put me in anyhow, I thought, well, I'd always thought about doing a rock album. I thought Tom and everything, and I wanted to miss out on time. So I thought, well, I'm gonna do it. So I announced it there that night. I said, I'm gonna think about doing rock and roll album. Many of you want to join me. And a lot of them did, yeah. But no, it was sincere. I wasn't making it up for attention.
- [40:46]
But was this album really. Because you mentioned your husband too, being a big factor on the songs that were picked for it. But was this album, did it derive from you going, well, now I got.
- [40:55]
To do a rock album kind of. I felt like I needed to earn that title. And now I feel like that this album is good enough. Think it's some of my best work. I chose great song and I also chose great artists to sing with me. And now I feel like at least earned the fact that I'm in the Rock and roll hall of fame. And if somebody sees my name, they'll say, oh, yeah, did you ever hear that rock.
- [41:16]
The rock album she Records? Everybody's talking about it.
- [41:18]
Yes. Did you hear a Rock Star? And that was the title was just tongue in cheek. I just kind of like, here I am, 77 years old and I'm going to be a rock star. You know, it was just. I thought, well, why don't you not? I'll leave that for my legacy.
- [41:30]
What was the first track you cut? Because that's that at least the first one you knew you wanted to cut.
- [41:35]
Well, I think the first one I cut was a song of mine because I wanted to get comfortable. It was more country flavored. It was the My Blue Tears I did with Simon Levon. I wrote that song when I was young kid, and I'd recorded a couple times even within the trio album with Linda and Emmy. And so I did that one just to kind of get, you know, get my stuff going. And then we started cutting songs like Satisfaction. I think that was the second one. And then we just really went on with some of those hard ass rock and roll songs.
- [42:10]
The real rock, right?
- [42:11]
Real rock.
- [42:12]
What about Simon made you go to him first to say, hey, do this song with me? Because you wrote that by yourself, right?
- [42:17]
I wrote that by myself and I wrote that years ago. But I thought this song was so pretty and I wanted to add more to it. But I was. The reason I picked Simon is he was on the rock and roll. He went in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame with Duran Duran that night, Same night I did. Same reason I picked Pat Benatar and Rob Halford. You know, they were all there that night and I got a chance to talk to all of them. But that one, I just thought it would make just a beautiful song. I just pictured that song about going off to war, you know, like all the war going on and you know that lovers and husbands were going off to war. And the girls singing, you know, My Blue Tears. And I just pictured that as a movie theme almost. And I just thought Simon's voice was so beautiful because it was Old World. And I did some harmonies, that Old World type harmonies with myself. But he's got that really beautiful high pitched voice and I thought he was perfect. And he was.
- [43:14]
Whenever you're singing some of these songs that other artists made famous, we talked about Elton John, but Sting, Every Breath youh Take Take Steve Perry, Journey, Open Arms. Do you have pressure? Do you put it on yourself? When you're singing a song and then you're asking the original artist to get on it with you, Is there a standard it has to hit before you'll send it off?
- [43:30]
Well, you know what I. I had, I talked about this on different things. I hate to ask anybody to do anything. Anybody asks me to sing on anything. I. Nearly 99% of the time I will. And if I don't, it's just. Cause I can't make the time to do it or something. Something. But I just listened to the songs and I think who would be great on it? I actually recorded the whole album and had not thought of putting anybody on it. Then after I got the album recorded, then I started thinking, wouldn't it be great if I could get some of these artists? So it was hard for me to ask them because I didn't. It wasn't that I thought they'd say no so much as because I were professional and they would if they could. And you know, I just had trouble doing it. But I thought, well, it'd be worth it because it'd be great if I'm going to do the rock album to really make it something special. I mostly called the people. You know, I wrote a note through my management because my manager knows everybody else's manager. So we did a lot of it through their manager. So I didn't have to put myself nor them on a total spot. But I wrote that, I wrote the note myself saying what I wanted to say to them. Then I thought, well, if they get back to me, they can just say they can't or whatever, and they won't have to be. But my heart was open to it and to them, and I was really honored that so many of them wanted to do it.
- [44:52]
I picture there's a meme or like A Beautiful Mind where he's doing. You know, there's connecting all the dots and the ropes in that movie, you doing this with songs and all these artists because it's so many great artists and you going, well, Debbie Harry sounds really good on this one. But what if. Because she's so like, how did that process come about?
- [45:10]
Well, actually, when I recorded all those songs, I thought about all those people that were still living and still productive. Some of them we hadn't heard from in a long time. You know, like Steve Perry, who was always one of my favorite singers ever. And some people say, I don't think you'll get him because he doesn't work that much anymore. And this and this and this. Well, when I got in touch with him, he called me right back and he said, I've been a fan for years. I used to watch you on the board of Wagner show, and my family loved you, so I knew you. So they all had their own own kind of story and their own kind. Same with Rob Halford. When we were standing there at the Rock and Roll hall of Fame, he was saying how his whole family grew up on My Color, Many Colors, and he was naming songs like Down From Dover off of albums that you'd have to really know my history and know me to know some of the songs. And so we just made some. We just made personal connections. And then when I called about singing on it, they were all in the.
- [46:11]
Book behind the Scenes. It's interesting to me because something that you're so known for and celebrated for, we now understand that as being normal. However, you're the one that had to kind of create these new highways for people to drive down. And I would assume that it always wasn't so easy where people were just celebrating you for your fashion. People had to be like, wow, what is she wearing? At times where now again, we look at it it and go, that's Dolly. She's set the standard for everybody else. But when you're ground, when you're someone who's breaking ground on new things, there's a lot of criticism or there's a lot of just judgment on you.
- [46:43]
Yeah.
- [46:44]
Couldn't have been so easy all the time.
- [46:45]
It wasn't. But I chose to be myself. Even still, some things would embarrass me. Some Things would hurt my feelings, but not enough stop me, you know, because I always just wore things that I was comfortable with. I didn't have the money to be fashionable, fashionable, you know, back in the, in the days and. But I just wore what I was comfortable with, what I thought fit my personality. And it was a country girl's idea of glam, you know, my backwoods Barbie look, so to speak. But it really was, you know, when I wrote the song Backwards Barbie, you know, it's like I'm just a backwards Barbie. Too much makeup, too much hair. But don't be fooled by thinking that the goods are not all there. You know, don't let these false out lashes lead you to believe that I'm a silly as I look, because there's a lot to me kind of idea. So. But I just felt if I had anything worth having, people would see it in time. If my songs were worth singing and recording, people would find them in time. So I felt it was more important that I please myself and that I be happy within myself and that I mostly be comfortable in my own skin, as I say, no matter how far I've stretched it or. But certainly I need to be. Be comfortable in my own clothes and in my own self. So if I'm comfortable, everybody around me is comfortable.
- [48:05]
Final question I have for you, Dolly. I want to go back to the grand ole Opry. You're 13 or 14 years old. The first time you play it, do you have, do you have a memory of that? And then the tale of the three standing ovations. Can you remember them? My first time ever played at the opera, it's all a blur. When I was doing comedy at the opera, it's all a blur. And I don't remember it that well. Can you remember that? That seems like such a big.
- [48:28]
Well, I remember even the very first time that I sang on the radio when I was 10 years old. And that's when I got addicted to that feeling of that audience where it gave me confidence and that same thing, you know, it gives you confidence. It makes you feel like you're doing something right. And I always say that was a lot of. That was not because I succeeded. It was because I was young and because I was little back then. But that's just like a shot of adrenaline. And that just gives you, you encouragement. That just gives you more, you know, it's like fuel to the flame, as they say. But I remember all, all of the things the same thing. Same way I feel now when I'm out there. In the audience, I mean, and with the audience out there. When I'm out on stage now, you never get over that feeling because it's like a who, you know, it's like a great feeling. You feel like you've done something right. You feel like you've done something good. So you're proud of yourself and you're proud of them, you know, for making you feel good and that you feel like, well, they've made me believe that I, you know, that I'm worth what they've paid to come to see me because, you know, the fans are everything. We all want to think we're good at what we do, but if we didn't have that following, if we didn't have those people that believed in us to the point of buying records and all that, we wouldn't have them. So there's something to be said about when people react in that way. It makes you feel good, and it makes you feel proud, and it makes you feel like that you've done something right and something good.
- [49:59]
The Bobby cast. We'll be right back.
- [50:04]
Podcast Host
So what happened to Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to.
- [50:08]
There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond and.
- [50:15]
Left a woman behind to drown.
- [50:17]
There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News, it's teddy is Blonde Drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you the story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes. Will Ted become president?
- [50:32]
Kappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control.
- [50:36]
And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal.
- [50:39]
The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family.
- [50:50]
Dolly Parton
Listen to United States of Kennedy on.
- [50:52]
Podcast Host
The iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.
- [51:01]
Bobby Bones
Welcome to Pretty Private with ebony, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm ebony, and every Tuesday, I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that would challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. On Pretty Private, we'll explore the untold experiences of women of color who faced it all. Childhood trauma, addiction, abuse, incarceration, grief, mental health struggles, and more. And found the strength to make it to the other side. My dad was shot and killed in his house. Yes, he was a drug dealer. Yes, he was a confidential informant, but he wasn't shot on street corner. He wasn't shot in the middle of a drug deal. He was shot in his house, unarmed. Pretty Private isn't just a podcast. It's your personal guide for turning storylines into lifelines. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect podcast network. Tune in on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
- [52:06]
Podcast Host
Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders.
- [52:22]
Dolly Parton
I was calling about the murder of my husband. It's a cold case. They've never found her. And it haunts me to this day.
- [52:28]
The murderer is still out.
- [52:30]
Podcast Host
Every week on Helen Gone Murder line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking.
- [52:40]
Dolly Parton
Police really didn't care to even try. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never gotten any kind of answers for.
- [52:52]
Podcast Host
If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Helen gone murder at 678-744-6145. Listen to Helen Gone Murderline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [53:08]
Dolly Parton
Welcome back to the Bobbycast. One more thing. I wanted to play just because I love this story and this is from the Bobby Bones show, but this is Dolly talking to us about writing. Jolene, I will always love you. Same day. Yes, that was a very fortuitous financial day. She made a lot of money that day. I've never made near that amount of money in one day that she made writing those two songs in one day. So here's Dolly talking about that. Do you feel like in your heart you're a songwriter or an artist first?
- [53:42]
I'm a songwriter first and. Cause I've been asked that more than one time. If you had to just stop everything and just do one thing, what would that be? And I said I'd probably choose to write because I love that. Not just songs, but poems and jokes and stories and coming up with. I'm a creative person, but I love it all. I would never want to separate it because I need all the other elements to make the writing make sense or have an outlet for that. But I just love to write. That's my personal time to write. Is my therapist. It's my friend. It's my God time. It's my, my, you know, so I'm feeling like I'm leaving something in the world, you know, today that, you know, or tomorrow that wasn't there, you know, yesterday. And so I'm not necessarily a great writer. I've got. I say I've written at least 5,000 songs. I got probably five good ones. But it's important to, I think, to express yourself, you know, like that. And I just enjoy that.
- [54:39]
You started as a songwriter, like right before you kind of got signed as a recording art.
- [54:45]
Yes, I did. I got on salary for when I was trying to get a record deal too. And when I first came to Nashville. I started writing for BMI when I was just a little kid sending songs back and forth to Nashville in the mail. And so I wanted to sing too. I wanted to be a star. I wanted to be. To travel the world. I wanted to be rich and famous like we all do. But it was more about the art with me always. You know, I wanted to. I wanted to make good money, but I wanted people to hear my songs and I just wanted to get out there and perform.
- [55:14]
What was the first song that someone sang that you wrote? Do you remember?
- [55:18]
Yes. The first record I won with my uncle Bill Owens, who's the one that kind of helped me get around. He was my mother's brother. He played guitar and he was a writer singer. But he saw my great desire and he's the one that would take me around to sing. So we wrote a song together on different trips back and forth to Nashville when I was young song. And we were trying to get record deals or songs recorded, and we wrote a song called Put It Off Until Tomorrow. That was the song that was the BMI song of the year. That year. 1966, I guess, maybe 65 or 66. Bill Phillips on Decca Records. So I felt like I'd made it. Then another.
- [56:01]
That was a huge deal, right, to have someone sing your song.
- [56:05]
Yes. And actually, what's so funny, that is kind of what got me started as a singer as well. Because they were trying. When I first came to Nashville, I was young and so Fred Foster and different people that I would go to talk to with Monument Records, and they thought since I was young, I should do more like rockabilly or more pop things. And I kept saying, I'm a country singer. I don't know that world I'm not comfortable with that. But when I sent this song out as a songwriter, my Uncle Bill and I, I didn't have my name on it. I just was singing the harmony on it. And so Bill Phillips and the Decca Records said, who is the girl singing the harmony on that? And Bill Phillips said, I want that girl to sing the harmony. So I'm singing harmony on Bill Phillips record. And that's when my name wasn't on the record and people were calling through the radio station, who's the girl? Who's a girl singer? And so that's how I went to the record label and said, see, I told you I was a country singer, so let me sing country. And that's kind of how that got started.
- [57:09]
So many females cite you as their biggest influence, like the women that come in here, like Kelsey Ballerini. I saw Carly Pierce just tweet that she's listening to you. Lauren Elena messaged me. And so you coming up in an industry that was really, really male driven at the time like that for you had to be quite the shock, right, to go into all men, you know, it really wasn't.
- [57:32]
And people ask me that all the time. That didn't seem that big of a deal to me because I have six brothers and I'm very close to my uncles and my dad, and so I understand and love men. I understand the, you know, and all the personalities. And I just knew that I had the goods, I knew I had the songs, and I always felt like I had something to give. So I would just go in, like, kind of like with a business attitude. But when they'd flirt with me, I took it as a compliment because I knew I wasn't going to let it get out of hand because, you know, if I didn't kick their butts, I had six brothers. Love it.
- [58:08]
So the six brothers that kind of set you up.
- [58:11]
Well, I know every, you know, I know the nature of men and I know all the personalities. So. But I really think that helped me a lot because I think it could have been a lot worse for me had I not, you know, I was so dumb, too. I probably didn't even know sometimes when things were maybe out of kilter, because I also had such confidence in myself that I would always know when something didn't seem right and I would, you know, I'm redneck enough to know how to put a halt to that if I didn't want to do it. Like I said, I never slept with anybody. I didn't want to. Nobody ever Forced me to do it. I didn't have to do it for a deal that was like. That was just our own personal deal. If that happened.
- [58:49]
Tell me about this, because depending when you grew up, the song happens in many versions. And I feel like now this version's back. Like, this is the one that people know again, because you wrote the song how long ago?
- [59:07]
In 1972, I think I wrote it at the same time I wrote Jolene. That was a good writing day.
- [59:13]
What do you. The same. You wrote this to the same day?
- [59:15]
Yeah, I believe so. It was writing that writing period of time because I remember all my paperwork and like, they came out pretty close, you know, at the same time. So everybody said, boy, you. What was you taking? That was a good. That was a good writing day. But it was. But that song, you know, came from a very serious place and everybody's always heard the story. When I was working with the Porter Wagoner show and we were. I was trying to get out, go out on my own, and it was taking a big honk out of his show and the fact that we had one of those love hate relationships, and it was just hard to move on. And so he wasn't listening to anything I had to say. So I went home and wrote that song, took it back the next morning and said, sit down, I need you to hear something. So I sang it and he was crying, so he said, okay, you can go, providing I can produce that record. So he did. And so that's how it came about. But it was only when and Whitney recorded it that it became like such a worldwide hit. And so that's. That's just. I'll always love Whitney Houston.
- [60:17]
How did they approach you for that?
- [60:19]
Well, that's a funny thing. Kevin Costner was producing or directing, and I imagine producing also the Bodyguard movie. And he was in it. And so they had a song that was going to be the theme. And just before they got ready to. To do the movie, someone else covered the song they were going to use. So they had to find another song. And his secretary or his assistant, somebody said, there's a Dolly Parton song I love. I will always love you. I think it would just fit this. And he said, oh, yeah, I love that song. So they contacted me about using it. I said, absolutely. So I sent it. And I hadn't heard anything more about it until I heard it going. Driving from my office to my house in Brentwood, I heard, heard I didn't know if they had ever used it or anything. And so I Just heard Whitney saying if I did the acapella part, and it was just. It wasn't ringing true. I thought, well, that's weird. That's. You know, something caught my attention, and it was only when she went into the course of it that I was lovely, that I realized what I was listening to. And it was so overwhelming. I almost wrecked. I just pulled off just the greatness and the bigness and the fact that that was my song and it was just so out of nowhere. And I have to honestly say that is one of the biggest thrills and one of the most overwhelming feelings I've ever had about anything in my life.
- [61:41]
Well, you've always been so kind to me, so.
- [61:44]
Well, we love you. Everybody loves Bones.
- [61:46]
That's not true.
- [61:47]
Did you ever hear a song of mine called V's Old Bones?
- [61:49]
I have.
- [61:50]
Well, you need to play that once in a while. Just that part. That these old bones will tell your story. These old bones will never lie. Yeah, you heard her.
- [61:59]
I heard her. Are you hurting financially? Is that why you need to play?
- [62:02]
I was thinking, I mean, how many people have a song about it? Your old bones.
- [62:05]
All right, fair enough. Thank you, guys for listening to this with Dolly. She continues to redefine what it is to be an artist, a storyteller, a cultural icon. We're so grateful for the time. I am so grateful for the time. I've been grateful to work with Dolly in many capacities at this point. If it's philanthropy, if it's entertainment, whatever it is, I've just been very lucky to know do so. I feel lucky. I hope you feel lucky. Thanks for listening. And if you enjoyed this episode, please follow the Bobbycast. That helps us so much. Rate and review. I know people say that crap and you're like, I'm not gonna do that. But it does help. And if you know a Dolly fan, please send them this. Hit a little button that goes share and send them the link or wherever you listen to this. So, yeah, go get it. That's awesome. Thank you, Dolly. You're an inspiration. And that is all for this week on the Bobbycast. Thanks for listening to a BobbyKast production. Looking for your next obsession? Listen to High Key, a new weekly podcast hosted by Ben o' Keefe, Ryan Mitchell, and Evie. Oddly, we got a lot of things to we're gonna gush about. The random stuff we can't stop thinking about. I am high key. Going to lose my mind over all things cowboy Carter. I know, girl. The way she about to yank my bank account. Correct and one thing I really love.
- [63:39]
IPVanish Ad
About this is that she is celebrating her daughters.
- [63:41]
Dolly Parton
Oh, I know. Listen to High key on the iHeartRadio.
- [63:45]
IPVanish Ad
App, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [63:49]
Podcast Host
What happens when we come face to face with death?
- [63:52]
Dolly Parton
My truck was blown up by a 20 pound anti tank mine.
- [63:55]
My parachute did not deploy.
- [63:57]
I was kidnapped by a drug cartel.
- [64:00]
Podcast Host
When we stepped beyond the edge of what we know, I clinically died.
- [64:03]
Dolly Parton
The heart stopped beating, which I was dead for 11.5 minutes.
- [64:07]
Podcast Host
In return, it's a miracle I was.
- [64:09]
Dolly Parton
Brought back alive again.
- [64:10]
Podcast Host
A podcast about the strength of the human spirit. Listen to Alive Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Do you remember Vine? It changed the Internet forever and it vanished in its prime. I'm Benedict Townsend and this vine six seconds that changed the world. The untold story of genius, betrayal and the app that died so that TikTok could thrive. From overnight stars to the fall that no one saw coming. We're breaking down what made vine iconic. Listen to vine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
- [64:49]
Bobby Bones
This is an iHeart podcast.